The Riker Company, at present of 45 York street, Borough of Brooklyn, have in use a half dozen and have a dozen under contract, at prices from $1,800 to $2,500, and say the difficulty is not to get orders, but to fill them, the reason for this being that the subject is still so new that everything must be devised and procured and construction is therefore slow. The Riker Electric Trap No. 1 won first prize on Narragansett track at the Rhode Island State Fair, Sept. 7, 1896, doing five miles in 11:28; this weighed 1,800 pounds, had a capacity of ten miles for four hours, and attained a speed of twenty-seven miles; it was crudely put together as most convenient, and had bicycle wheels with “direct” spokes, the drivers being provided with four tension rods running in a tangential direction midway between rim and hub. Wheels as now made are 32 inch front and 36 rear; speeds provided are 3 and 6 miles back and 3—6—12—15 miles forward. Distance run on one charging and cost of current per mile are about as with the Pope carriage; the general description of that will also answer for others of its class, and we might add here that no attempt is made to go into the technical description of any motor vehicle, as this could not be done except at great length and with detailed illustrations. Mr. Riker believes strongly in the carriage, mentioning its suitability for physicians, for example, because it does not involve exposing a horse to inclement weather; for safety in leaving in the streets when not having a driver with it, he makes his “safety plug,” a special lock with the Yale tumblers, so that the vehicle cannot be moved by its own power except after first inserting the owner’s key.
The gas engine has for years been in use for stationary service in England, and considerably by cycle makers, largely because of the low price of gas in the Kingdom. These engines depend on the familiar principle that hydro-carbon vapors are explosive when mixed with air in certain proportions. As employed in driving boats or vehicles, the operation is essentially the same as long familiar in shops; the engines are explosion engines, driving the shaft only by the outward thrust of the piston and commonly making only each second or fourth movement effective, the remaining movements being consumed in restoring the mechanism to its original condition, these recurring acts being known as a “cycle” of changes. Hence a flywheel is required, and the driving power is irregular and by recurrent throb or thrust rather than by the usual reciprocal movement of an engine.
In England a great impulse was doubtless given to autocars by the London to Brighton run, Nov. 14, 1896, to celebrate the date when the new “Light Locomotives act” took effect, permitting speed up to fourteen miles an hour. This occasion is claimed by an American maker to have been a race, and won by him; the Scottish Cyclist account calls it a parade, in which 32 machines out of an expected 56 took part. Mud and rain, with the pressure of traffic and spectators, “disorganized the procession,” but this is pronounced a better test of running qualities than favorable conditions would have furnished. Various tricycles, the French carriage which won the Paris-Marseilles race, landaus, dogcarts, bath chairs, delivery vans, etc., all presumably motor-driven, participated. No winner is reported or any time given.
THE GAS MOTOR.
The Winton Motor Carriage Company, of Cleveland, Ohio, now offers a light single-seat carriage for two persons, at $1,000, deliverable in sixty days. The motor is of the single hydro-carbon type, using common stove gasoline, obtainable almost anywhere; a supply is carried for a day’s run of seventy-five miles over ordinary roads, at a cost of under a half cent per mile. The catalogue says that “by an ingenious and simple arrangement the motor is absolutely under control, running at any desired speed without affecting its driving power, and, in contradistinction to other motors, variable gearing for different speeds is not necessary, except the hill-climbing and backing gear; the motor can be speeded from 200 revolutions to 900 or 1,000 per minute in about three seconds, and almost as quickly slowed down to a governed speed of 200.” A Winton carriage claims the world’s record with a mile in 1.48, on a circular track, Decoration Day, 1897. It is claimed to be equal to “actual service over all kinds and conditions of roads, up hill and down, through mud, sand and snow, at from three to twenty miles an hour,” and a challenge is out to any kind of motor carriage, by American or foreign maker, for a race next summer from New York to Chicago or over any other course of at least 1,000 miles.
The Hertel Gasoline Motor-carriage Company, lately of Chicago, but now of Springfield, and interested with the Iven-Brandenburgh Company, proposes a light and improved carriage at a moderate price, but declines to furnish any information, on the ground of not yet being ready to fill orders.
The Duryea Motor Wagon Company of Springfield, Mass., shows illustrations of the racing wagon which it claims won the Liberty Day run from London to Brighton, already mentioned; another of the one that won the $2,000 first prize in the Chicago Times-Herald race of Thanksgiving Day, 1895; also of the winner of the $3,000 Cosmopolitan Magazine race, Decoration Day, 1896. The later models only have bicycle wheels: the earlier one had wood wheels on the old wagon-wheel pattern. The earlier weights were 1,200 to 1,400 pounds; the latest are brought down to 750. Ordinary stove gasoline is the fuel, and six gallons are carried, equal to 150 miles’ running. A small dynamo furnishes the spark for ignition in the cylinder. No gas or vapor is carried outside the motors; no flame is used; if the water in the tank is gone, the motor simply stops; there is no danger of explosion or fire; the two motors are independent, and one wall work even if the other has failed; five minutes suffice for recharging with fuel and water; the carriage steers so well that it will practically pass over rocks “hands off.” Speed ranges up to thirty miles, and any rate below that may be run at will.
Here might be remarked the lightness of the Pennington tricycle used in the London to Brighton run of 1896, “for to turn out a vehicle of less than 250 pounds, yet capable of propelling itself with a load of four passengers at speeds ranging up to twenty and thirty miles an hour is decidedly a noteworthy achievement.” This vehicle was put together by clamping the tubes instead of brazing.
The Weston-Mott Company of Utica discerns the signs of the times, and now offers all kinds of wheels for horseless vehicles.